This invention relates to fishing tackle, and more particularly to the removal of unwanted material from the eyeholes of fish hooks and fishing lures.
Fish hook and fishing lure eyeholes often become filled with, or partially clogged by, unwanted materials such as rust, dirt, plant matter, ice or old fishing line. Also, some fishing lures, such as lead head jigs, are manufactured by spraying them with, or dipping them into, paint or plastic materials that clog the eyehole of such lures. Prior hand tools used to unclog these eyeholes have not been satisfactory because they do not adequately support the fish hook or lure while the unwanted material is being removed, and they were limited as to the size of the eye hole that they could clean. Some tools even made cleaning difficult because they limited the amount of rotational movement that could take place between the fish hook or lure and the part of the tool that penetrated the eyehole. Also, some prior tools were dangerous because the person using them might be stuck by the point of a hook being cleaned or a hook connected to a lure because of the forces exerted when the eyehole is being rotated or twisted to completely clean it.